The last time Justin Timberlake put out an album was in 2006. The nattily dressed
electro-R&B singer had promised to bring “sexy back” to pop charts that had apparently been
neglecting such.

Seven years and a
Social Network later, Timberlake is back, and we’re pleased to report that the results are
still quite sexy.

Suit & Tie is a radiant, ramshackle song that’s less of a coherent single and more of
a coronation event. It grafts at least three different Timberlake settings — the slow-rolling
futurist, crisp-collared soul man and back-seat driver to a rap kingpin (Jay-Z) — into one strange
track that comes off like a best-man wedding toast. It’s rambling and full of awkward transitions
yet occasionally finds its feet and ultimately heralds a joyful event: Justin Timberlake making
music again.

Produced by longtime sideman Timbaland and J-Roc, the tune’s opening movement dices some
luminous ’70s sounds (horns, harps) into a loping half-time beat. It’s all throat clearing, and
Timberlake doesn’t do much beyond announcing his upmarket sartorial tastes and intentions to “show
you a few things.”

But that’s a goal he promptly delivers on in the song’s second and best section: a sashay
through Philly soul and early disco re-imagined as a sci-fi debutante ball. How have we survived
these seven long years without Timberlake’s falsetto toeing that line between sweet and lascivious
on the dance floor? With a bit of editing and extended mixing, this marimba-driven section of
Suit & Tie would be out of the gate as 2013’s song of the year so far. That is, until
Timberlake pulls the e-brake and changes it yet again.

Rarely does a Jay-Z cameo throw a song off its game, but
Suit & Tie’s conclusion comes so abruptly, and after such pleasure before it, that the
rapper would have to be on some
Blueprint-level fire to keep up the pace. Instead, he’s riffing on the current high-dining
“truffle season” that makes him sound like rap’s Graydon Carter. The beat beneath it is moody and
spacious on its own, but it so thoroughly breaks the song’s spell that not even Jay can recover the
glow.

FutureSex/LoveSounds used a similar smash-mix tactic in sequencing its tunes, but
Timberlake’s presence was so strong that it carried the album. So let’s hope that the centerpiece
vibe of
Suit & Tie is the heartbeat of the forthcoming album,
The 20/20 Experience. If it is, then let’s break out some truffles.